Kipor Generator for recharging House Battery

[kevin61]

Just purchased a Kipor KGE1000 Ti generator and tested it out last night. I was originally looking to purchase a Yamaha but, at about 1/2 the price I opted for the Kipor.

Blackfoot Motorsports in Calgary has a few on sale for $499. their regular price was $849. The cheapest I could find online was $450 US plus shipping/duties etc.

As I have dual 6 volt batteries supplying 240 amp hours and a TrueCharge 10 amp smart charger my main use of the Kipor will be to recharge the batteries.

My batteries were at 100% and I needed to drain them somewhat for the test. I plugged in a 1200 watt electric heater to my inverter and turned it on. It drained 14% of the battery power in about 10 minutes. I normally would not use the heater in this fashion, I just needed to drain some energy from the battery in a hurry.

I then started the Generator and plugged it into my charger and kept a record of what was happening. It took 80 minutes to restore 10% of the battery capacity.

The plan is to operate on battery power until the batteries are depleted by 30% and then recharge. Should have to use the generator only for about 4 hours when the battery reaches this state. I can then schedule to run the generator during the noisiest time of the day so as not to interfere with others camping.

[Byron Kinnaman]

Interesting.

I have a 74 amp hour battery, lasts easily over any 3 day week-end without recharging. That would mean that 240 amp hours should last me about 2 weeks without recharging.

That would mean I'd never have to worry about running out of battery.
I've been thinking about going to a group 27 battery with over a 100 Amp hours. Still wouldn't require recharging, but just in case I might add a small solar panel.

Byron

[Darwin Maring]

Did you use 12VDC or AC and a battery charger to charge the battery?

My McCullouch 2000 has both DC (12V) and AC connections. McCullouch is a Kipor in different clothing.

[kevin61]

I used AC. My 10 amp smart charger is wired directly into my breaker panel. I just start the generator and plug in my 30 amp trailer cord (with adapter). The charger takes over from there.

It bulk charges at 10 amps until the battery is up to about 95% and then shifts into lower gear for the remainder of the charge. Once it is almost complete it will convert to a trickle charge.

I have yet to test the battery out in a dry camping situation and may not need to recharge while camping. However it is good to have the ability to do so if required.

[Capt Ron]

Kevin,

I also have a Kipor 1000 watt genset but I hate to tell you I found it on sale at Harbor Freight Tools for $250 last year.

The Kipor will provide DC power but only 8.5 amps so you probably will get better charging off the 120 AC charger.

I did have a problem with my Kipor ... I've used it once ... to power a hedge trimmer about 6 months ago. That was another story but suffice it to say that all I had left was a short extension cord so I needed power close to the job. Anyway, this season, when I went to start it, I found that it was put of gas so I put some gas in and it immediately started leaking fuel all over the place. I finally figured out that the On-Off switch was leaking fuel! Then I gave the On-Off switch another twist and the damn thing came off in my hand!

Yikes ... you get what you pay for I guess.

Then with a little further astute analysis, I discovered that the rivets holding the switch/valve had sheared off right at the flange that holds the whole On-Off/thingy together. With a little careful drilling (this is usually where I manage to drill into my wrist) I was able to drill the remaining part of the rivets out of the flange and drill the body of the valve/thingy such that I could screw in a couple of small stainless screws where the rivets were. I carefully reassembled the valve-thingy being very careful not to break off one of the stainless screws in the valve body (past experience speaking here). I was able to tighten the flange enough that it stopped the leak and the machine runs like it should (I think or hope).

Good luck with yours, great minds think alike...maybe.

[peterh]

I have a 74 amp hour battery, lasts easily over any 3 day week-end without recharging. That would mean that 240 amp hours should last me about 2 weeks without recharging.

That would mean I'd never have to worry about running out of battery.
I've been thinking about going to a group 27 battery with over a 100 Amp hours. Still wouldn't require recharging, but just in case I might add a small solar panel.

We have a single medium-sized, 50w solar panel on our trailer charging our 100Ah spiral gel cell, and it easily generates 2.3 amps on a cloudy spring day . . . probably much more on a sunny summer day. What does that 14Ah buy us? Enough power to run our LED lighting until the sun burns out, run our furnace 3 hours a day (which is about right for a cold day), our water pump (which is high demand, but only runs a very few minutes each day), and still have power for charging two laptops once a day and run our Radio/TV for an hour or so. On hot summer days we'd also run our Fantastic Fan, but on hot summer days we'd also get more hours of sunlight and resulting charge, making that a wash. If we watch more TV or charge our laptops more than once a day we start dipping into our battery "reserve" power, but that reserve should easily last several days all by itself and could be replenished by running our tow vehicle if push came to shove.

The downside of our setup is the solar and LED lights alone probably cost as much or slightly more than a 1000w Honda generator, but the solar panels are mounted on the roof in such a way that they're nearly invisible and very difficult to remove (steal) and they make no noise and require no gasoline that has to be purchased and stored safely.

[peterh]

. . . run our furnace 3 hours a day (which is about right for a cold day) . . .

I just went back and re-read my post, and realized my "furnace" figure of 3 hours doesn't make sense. Since my forced-air furnace clicks on and off, it really only runs about one-quarter of the time, so three hours of run time actually equates to twelve hours with the heat turned up.

[Tom Trostel]

Capt Ron,
I had exactly the same failure of the "On-Off" switch last week on my McCulloch (Kipor) FG 2000 Tc. I didn't attempt to repair the switch as you did, but replaced it. The switch has two functions. It is a fuel cut-off and an electrical kill switch. I installed a plastic fuel cut-off for a Briggs & Straton lawn mower engine and a simple rocker electrical switch. Works well so far.

Tom Trostel

[Capt Ron]

Capt Ron,
I had exactly the same failure of the "On-Off" switch last week on my McCulloch (Kipor) FG 2000 Tc. I didn't attempt to repair the switch as you did, but replaced it. The switch has two functions. It is a fuel cut-off and an electrical kill switch. I installed a plastic fuel cut-off for a Briggs & Straton lawn mower engine and a simple rocker electrical switch. Works well so far.

Tom Trostel

Hi Tom,

If my repair fails, I'll try the same thing; thanks for the tip.

I didn't remove the switch from the unit. I had trouble taking the case apart. The two bolts at the bottom of the case that also serve as engine mounts refused to budge but I didn't try anything on them other than a standard Phillips screwdriver. Then I decided that I could repair the switch without removing the case or the switch. Like I said, so far, so good.